The Genuine Article
by Ross Finlay (25 May 02)

"Fantastic stuff, Ross!" they said. "What you did with those MINI Cooper S's - handbrake turns, front-end throws, full-throttle 360-spins in a cloud of tyre smoke, and that business of steering down the hotel driveway on the two offside wheels with yourself and three other people on board. How on earth do you manage it?"

Good question, although what they actually said, I have to admit, was "Fantastic stuff, Russ!" That's as in Russ Swift, autotest driver absolutely extraordinaire, who was showing some of us scribblers how to make a new Cooper S spin and pirouette, sit up and beg.

His most spectacular trick involves howling along parallel with a couple of other MINIs positioned one behind the other, no more than about two and a half car lengths apart, and spinning round through 180 degrees, so that he parks in one tyre-howling sweep in the space between them. In other words, he doesn't just spin backwards; he edges in slightly more than a MINI-width sideways at the same time. Then he has the other cars brought closer together and repeats the movement into such a confined space that one of them has to move to let him out again. This is phenomenally accurate driving, and hair-raising to watch.

Almost the only thing he didn't do was a dash under the hotel portico, a half-spin, through the open door backwards, another half-spin in the lobby, two wheel-spinning laps of the table with the flower display, stop parallel with the desk, grin, and say to the receptionist: "Mr Swift. Could I have my key, please." I wouldn't put it past him, though, to be working on it.

Making A Point

The demonstration was all with a serious intent, of course, at the press launch of the new MINI Cooper S. Obviously, the message was: here's a car that's fun, fast and manoeuvrable. And there's no doubt that it is, out on the open road, even when driven with slightly less verve than Russ Swift displays.

One CARkeys reader has poured scorn on the Cooper S for having that 1.6-litre South American engine fitted, complete with Roots-type supercharger of a design he regards as archaic beyond description. Well, there's no word of anything different, and whatever you may think of the engine, in this 163bhp application it really does its stuff.

Some reports have suggested that the Cooper S ought to do better than a 0-62mph time of 7.4 seconds, but that's completely missing the point. A trimmed-down version certainly would beat that time, but this isn't a trimmed-down version. The latest Cooper S is a very sturdily built car with exceptional structural rigidity for its size.

Similarly, the traction and stability control systems have been pooh-poohed in certain boy-racerish quarters because they're reluctant to let the driver slide the car around all over the place. As someone who has no ambitions at all to drive with armfuls of opposite lock (on the road, I mean, Mr Swift) and thinks it's pretty stupid to force a car into antics the designers and engineers spent a lot of time dialling out of the equation, the Cooper S is just fine with me.

The MINI people made an inspired choice of launch location. Based near Aberdeen, the test routes headed for the hills, taking in among other roads the climb to the ski slopes on the Lecht, and on to Tomintoul, the highest village in the Highlands. Here and in some - er, personal route choices there were tremendous climbs, blind brows, rocketing downhill stretches and, in Strathdon, miles of sweeping bends with the river on one side and woodlands on the other, some cuttable corners and others blind. On roads of the latter type, you can balance the car nicely on the first part of a corner and then, as soon as you see the exit is clear, give it the works with complete assurance.

All-Purpose Sports Hatch

The great thing about the Cooper S is that it's entirely at home in all these situations - in fact, it just ate them up - and also completely biddable when pottering around in suburban traffic. When you floor the throttle, there's a specially tuned supercharger whine - not obtrusive, but just enough to make it obvious boost is being applied. If you've got it, flaunt it. As the revs rise, the top-performing MINI stops messing about and really starts shifting.

Thanks to the fact that it has a supercharger rather than a turbocharger, the power flows in smoothly, with no turbo-style step-up or lag. Flooring the throttle, you watch the needle sweep round the soup-plate-size central speedometer - well, you don't on bouncy roads, actually. That's because, although the Cooper S has a long wheelbase for its overall length, it's not all that long in ultimate terms. A car can have all the traction and stability controls in the world, but they work in two dimensions, not in three. Not to worry, though, it's all great fun.

Sportier "sports" suspension than on the standard Cooper, 16" alloy wheels, traction control, very good sports front seats, a leather-rimmed steering wheel, a rear roof spoiler and mean-looking chromed twin tail pipes are all included in the upgrades on the Cooper S specification, which comes at a standard price of £14,500.

But there's an eye-watering list of accessories and factory-fit options - including Union Jack or St Andrew's Cross roof finishes - and the car I tried would be priced in the showroom at £18,305. The customer record, so far, is close to £22,000.

The MINI is a car which, as the sales figures show, has really connected with its target market. The Cooper S has all the same jokey switchgear, door pulls and so on, but it's a genuine no-nonsense enthusiast's car, able to scamper along really challenging roads - not the round-the-bypass variety - with tremendous urge and eagerness.

John Cooper would have loved it, and it's good to know that before his death he was kept well up to date with the whole MINI project.

Back to MINI Launch index
Back to main Launch index